Dan, Judy, Martha, Myron, and Teresa all have a VERY close DNA MATCH through their multiple “greats” Great-Grandfather John Hamilton and his wife Christian, surname unknown. Through the use of well known paper trails and Y-DNA we have established that our connection goes back to John and Christian Hamelton/Hamilton, the parent’s of John and Joseph born in 1667 and 1671 in Concord, Massachusetts.

The DNA carried by our paternal ancestor, John Hamilton, indicates that our mid 17th Century Massachusetts-dwelling ancestor was not an English Puritan but instead hailed from Scotland. According to David Dobson there were a limited amount of Scots in New England and Massachusetts in the early and mid 17th century. So the question arises, where was John Hamilton born, if not in England, and why and how did he end up in Massachusetts? Through further research we have found multiple sources from which we can build a circumstantial case to give credence to the idea that he was a Scottish prisoner of war from the Battle of Dunbar at Dunbar, East Lothian, Scotland, arriving at Charlestown, Middlesex, Massachusetts in late December 1650 on the ketch Unity.